Does pitching search for big fish lead O's to the trade market?

In the Orioles' search for a top-of-the-rotation type starting pitcher, they could turn back to a pitcher whose name came up a lot at the midseason trade deadline – lefty Garret Crochet. 

Baseball insiders feel he is a prime trade prospect right now. He has two years of team control left for the Chicago White Sox, but they are not likely to win much in those two seasons. He could help them more in the future when they hope to be better by acquiring young position player talent to help them down the road.

To get Crochet for the next two years, a team will have to part with some premium talent very likely. If the Orioles were willing to part with one of Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo, Samuel Basallo or Heston Kjerstad they could get the White Sox's attention. But that is a pretty big if. Very big.

MLB Network insider Jon Heyman recently said four clubs - the Orioles, Red Sox, Dodgers and Phillies - are showing the most interest in acquiring the left-hander.

Crochet, age 25, went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA for a 121-loss team. Over 146 innings he allowed 123 hits with a 1.068 WHIP with 2.0 walks per nine and 12.9 strikeouts. He didn’t have enough innings to qualify for league leaders but would have been first in K/9, sixth in WHIP and 10^th in opponent OPS at .642.

In late May in Chicago, Crochet and Kyle Bradish were locked in a fantastic pitcher’s duel. Bradish would throw seven no-hit innings in a game that the Orioles won 4-1. Crochet allowed two runs over six innings with 11 strikeouts. O’s hitters I talked to the next day were very, very impressed by Crochet’s big-time stuff.

The question about him has been his innings totals. Crochet missed the entire 2022 season after Tommy John surgery and between 2021 and 2023 he pitched just 67 MLB innings.

This year that got bumped to 146 but the White Sox held him to four innings or less each outing from July on. He made a nice transition to a starting pitcher role but will the lack of innings leading up to 2024 create any issues moving forward? He may have answered that by going 146 this season.

Crochet is the only major-league pitcher since at least 1901 to record 200-plus strikeouts and 33 walks or less over his first 32 career starts. He was named to his first career American League All-Star team in 2024, pitching a scoreless fourth inning in Arlington, Tex.

This winter some team could get a top-of-rotation pitcher for the next two years at a low dollar price. But in a high price of talent, they must move to make it happen.